Introduction

Cognitive behaviour therapy is a type of psychotherapy that was originally designed to treat depression, but has since been expanded to include many forms of mental illnesses. Basically, negative thought patterns about the self and the world in generally are changed in order to alter negative behaviour patterns and treat things like depression. It has a great success rate and can be used to treat depression, anxiety, panic attacks etc.

CBT explained

CBT is an objective psychotherapy treatment that takes a goal oriented hands-on approach to address negative thinking patterns. It seeks to change the thinking patterns that are behind client’s psychological problems to provide positive mental health outcomes. It is utilized to treat an extensive array of psychological problems such as sleeping disorders, relationship issues, substance abuse, anxiety and depression. CBT works by focusing on changing the client’s attitudes and behaviours to different sensory stimuli. Clients are asked to be mindful of the thoughts that arise when exposed to different sensory stimuli, analysis them for their correctness and mindfully replace the negative thought with a positive thought by noting it down in a diary. This changes the thinking muscles and sets in motion a positive thinking pattern. CBT is evidentially proven to be very effective. Clients are assessed for their anxiety / depression scores prior to the start of the therapy and at various stages of the therapy to identify the improvements in their mental / psychological state of wellbeing as the therapy progresses and is finally completed.

A critical point of preference of evidence based cognitive behaviour therapy is that it tends to be shorter than other forms of psychotherapy such as psychoanalysis. Typically CBT takes four to seven months for most critical issues. Customers go to one session for every week, every session lasting for roughly 50 minutes. During this time the customer and psychotherapist work together to address the issues to fine tune the technique for dealing with them. CBT acquaints the client with a positive thinking analysis method that they can apply at whatever point in their life and it is capable of helping them in dealing with even future psychological issues face in their lives.

Physical Applications

This form of thinking has not only been effective when dealing with symptoms of anxiety and depression for my clients in Sydney, but studies have also shown that it is effective with physical ailments as well. Clients suffering from conditions that produce prolonged physical pain, such as cancer or fibromyalgia have reported improvements in health after attitude after going through CBT. Separate studies released in 2004 and 2008 showed that cognitive behavioural therapy was greatly effective in reducing stress related to both physical and psychosomatic illnesses.

It has long been known that depression and stress not only have a mental effect on the body, but also have a physical effect by raising blood pressure or lowering the immune system. It is no wonder then that seeking to remove these symptoms can also increase their body’s regenerative abilities and help to alleviate pain or at least lessen it.

Cognitive behavioural therapy has also been known to be quite effective in the treatment of long term smokers, and compulsive eaters. By removing negative thought patterns patients can learn to remove negative behaviour patterns as well. By learning to observe their own thoughts and stress triggers, they gain a better understanding of what leads them to want a cigarette or a piece of cake, and it shows them that they do not ‘need’ it. This method allows them to observe their cravings and work with them in order to reduce their intake of harmful things.

Conclusion

Patients looking for treating depression, anxiety, substance abuse, PTSD, and many other psychological problems can benefit from CBT. CBT is regularly used in my practice and I have seen first hand the benefits of better quality of life and drug free treatment of depression, anxiety and PTSD that CBT has afforded for my clients.